In raising concerns about the long-term meaning and results of Egypt's revolution, we must return to the very definition of revolution: a rapid, fundamental, and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of a society.

All Egyptians must be allowed to participate in shaping their future. The pro-democracy protesters of Egypt have succeeded in ousting Mubarak, but the struggle is not over and there is a long way to go.

This revolution holds great promise for Egypt. Its massed supporters are unified in a simple, passionate cause, but the blocs of power in Egypt will not easily concur on what is to be done to end corruption.

Mubarak and Suleiman should have listened to the words of an Egyptian woman named Olfa G. Tantawi. Perhaps they would have realized sooner that the culture of democracy was not far away at all but right at their very doorstep, insistently knocking.

For the first time in his life, Mubarak sided with the Egyptians' anger at the interference of foreign governments, though the irony of the notion was lost on him. As always, he failed to hear the people. They want him out. But he does not go.